This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-183570 filed Jun. 24, 2002, which is incorporated hereinto by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet printer, an inkjet printing method, a program and storage medium, and specifically to an inkjet printer, an inkjet printing method, a program and a storage medium used to execute borderless printing on a printing medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Color inkjet printers capable of executing so-called borderless printing are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2001-301201 and 2001-260391. Generally, in those inkjet printers, ink is ejected from a print head beyond the borders of a printing medium in order to print an image on the entire area of the printing medium. Namely, ink is ejected directly to a platen opposite to the print head so that ink spreads beyond the edges of the printing medium. For this purpose, the platen has an ink receiver receiving ink ejected from the print head to the printing medium beyond the edges thereof during borderless printing on the printing medium. The ink receiver may include an ink absorber for absorbing ink.
Ink used in color inkjet printers includes pigment ink and dye ink. In order to improve the image quality provided by the inkjet printer, pigment ink is preferably used as black ink. However, if pigment ink is ejected to the ink receiver during borderless printing on the printing medium, the pigment ink easily solidifies and accumulates in the ink receiver.
If the accumulation of pigment ink becomes significant in the ink receiver, the accumulated pigment ink comes into contact with the print head and then the periphery of the nozzle array may be stained. If the ink adhering to the print head contacts the printing medium, the image printing face of the printing medium may be stained. Furthermore, if the pigment ink ejected to the ink receiver for borderless printing is solidified and accumulated therein, the ink may clog the ink absorber in the ink receiver. This will deteriorate the absorbing performance of the ink absorber and accelerate the solidification and accumulation of pigment ink in the ink receiver.
Conventionally, pigment ink is not used for the borderless printing, since above described problems occur if executing the borderless printing with pigment ink. It is therefore very important to solve the above problems in order to achieve the borderless printing using pigment ink.
The present invention is directed to overcome one or more of the problems as set forth above.
The inkjet printer of the present invention is an inkjet printer capable of printing an image on a printing medium by ejecting ink in accordance with print data from a print head including nozzle arrays for pigment ink and dye ink, the inkjet printer comprising: a platen opposite to the print head, the platen defining a position of the printing medium for image printing; and an ink receiver formed in the platen to be opposite to the nozzle arrays of the print head, the ink receiver receiving ink ejected off the printing medium during borderless printing on an edge of the printing medium, wherein dye ink is ejected toward pigment ink received in the ink receiver during borderless printing using pigment ink.
The method of the present invention is an inkjet printing method for an inkjet printer including a platen opposite to a print head having nozzle arrays for pigment ink and dye ink, the platen defining a position of a printing medium for printing with the print head; and an ink receiver formed in the platen to be opposite to the nozzle arrays of the print head, the ink receiver receiving ink ejected off the printing medium during borderless printing on an edge of the printing medium, the method comprising the step of: ejecting dye ink toward pigment ink that has been ejected off the printing medium and received in the ink receiver during borderless printing using pigment ink.
Additionally, a program of the present invention is a program capable of making a computer perform steps included in the above-mentioned method.
Moreover, a storage medium of the present invention is a storage medium for storing the above-mentioned program.
The above and other objects, effects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.